


Coerceo

by truemugs



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Complete, Dungeon, Gen, Humor, Magic, One Shot, Outworld (Mortal Kombat), Spells & Enchantments, Trapped, grumpyscorpion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25365577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truemugs/pseuds/truemugs
Summary: [One-Shot] “Lord Raiden,” Kitana said. “Surely there is a way of counteracting Quan Chi’s spell? It cannot be permanent.”“No,” Raiden said with a sigh. “Not permanent. However, my skills in sorcery aren’t up to par with Quan Chi’s. Countering the effects is out of the question.”
Kudos: 6





	Coerceo

**Author's Note:**

> A little random something I came up with. I would’ve drawn this as a comic panel, but I can’t draw, so I wrote it. Also note, I prefer the Christopher Lambert/Conquest personality of Raiden over video-game Raiden any day, this is a hill I’ll die on.

* * *

**COERCEO**

* * *

**Latin definition of** **_coerceo_ **

    1. _enclose, confine_
    2. _limit_



**.**

**HELLFIRE** **engulfed** Scorpion’s reared-back fist. He struck the dungeon door with blinding speed, sending a roar of flame over the exit. 

Fire lit up the stone walls, the door shuddered against its hinges, but no sooner a wave of energy shot across the door. The aura swelled beneath Scorpion’s knuckles, breaking off his blow. He jumped back in bewilderment. His hellfire shriveled against the door’s bright green aura, leaving merely a blackened scar—rather than the intended hole—upon the wooden surface.

The aura dissipated. Within seconds, the burn mark faded altogether, leaving the exit no different than before. 

Off to the side, Lord Raiden leaned against the dungeon wall. His arms were crossed in casual disapproval, with one foot tucked behind his other. 

“As I was _saying…”_ Raiden said, “Quan Chi’s spell has prohibited any methods of exiting this chamber, including breaking down the door. But by all means, have at it.”

Scorpion eyed the Thunder God from the corner of his vision, feeling his eyebrow twitch. Exhaling thinly, he closed his eyes and willed hellfire to climb over his body.

“Don’t bother,” Raiden said. “If teleportation was an option of escape, do you honestly think _I’d_ still be standing here?”

Scorpion’s eyes shot open to a whirlwind of flames when a foreign tug broke over his form. Despite Raiden’s words, Scorpion attempted again – only to stagger on the spot, the flames around him choking into nothingness.

“Your determination is astounding—” 

“ _Unless_ you have anything of value to say,” Scorpion said, spinning around, “I suggest—”

“ _Enough_.”

Both spectre and god turned to fall under Princess Kitana’s steely gaze.

“Lord Raiden,” she said. “Surely there is a way of counteracting Quan Chi’s spell? It cannot be permanent.”

“No,” Raiden said with a sigh. “Not permanent. However, my skills in sorcery aren’t up to par with Quan Chi’s. Countering the effects is out of the question.”

“That’s—”

“How long will these effects linger?” Kitana asked, cutting off an agitated Scorpion.

“Hard to estimate, Princess Kitana. Perhaps one, two hours at most? Enough time for Quan Chi to escape and snicker at our fairly humiliating situation…”

“We would not _be_ in this position had you allowed me to pursue the necromancer myself,” Scorpion spat.

“Ah! Yes, why _hadn’t_ I thought of that?” Raiden said, feigning astonishment. Electricity stirred in his eyes. “You pursuing Quan Chi, alone and blinded by wrath in a labyrinth of a temple, would’ve turned _terrific_ results for us!” He paused and looked Scorpion dead in the eye, dropping all signs of sarcasm. “Quan Chi is not limited as your enemy, Scorpion. We all share a goal of his apprehension, lest you let your personal affairs block that fact.” 

White-hot anger lashed Scorpion. In that moment – having it dawn on him of the uselessness of his position, how his nemesis ran free, and the fact that he would be stuck for hours on end in close quarters with Earthrealm’s Thunder God – his patience disintegrated.

He unleashed his kunai for Raiden’s head – not to decapitate, but to tear a hole through the god’s ridiculous, conical hat.

A projectile streaked across the room, pinning the kunai off-course. It crashed against the wall, where the kunai swiftly froze over. The ice spiked down the chain attached to the kunai, in which Scorpion dropped before the cold could claim his skin.

The weapon clattered to the floor, encased thick with frost. Scorpion turned, scowling at the Lin Kuei across the room. Sub-Zero cast Scorpion a stern glance, before looking to Raiden and Kitana.

“Sonya’s unit is positioned on the north exit of this temple,” he said. “We’ve already succeeded in barricading all other exits, and Quan Chi is in a weakened state. Trapping us here was a matter of desperation; he is likely still within the grounds.”

Kitana nodded. “Major Blade and her reinforcements may still have the chance of intercepting him, but the tarkatans have no doubt ambushed their forces by now,” she mused. “And Quan Chi is known to slip through chaos.”

A distant _boom_ sounded over them, the floor quaking beneath their boots.

Raiden’s eyes narrowed. “With all sides preoccupied, we’re stagnant. We’ll hope Sonya’s group succeeds against the tarkatans and not fall for the same trap as we had with Quan Chi.”

“You expect us to wait?” Scorpion said, when neither Sub-Zero or Kitana spoke.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” Raiden said. “The last thing we should do is underestimate a millennium-old temple constructed on Outworld soil, not to mention one that’s been tinkered with by a sorcerer.” Raiden shot him a pointed look, and Scorpion could only clench his teeth and push away the speck of offense that surfaced in him.

“The spell will lift off its own accord, so…” Raiden resituated himself comfortably against the wall, closing his eyes. “Let’s practice our patience.”

His eyes were shut but a moment before he opened one. Raiden cast Scorpion a deliberate, superstitious glance, before hastily removing his hat and tucking it behind his back.

A scoff escaped Scorpion. He glanced over to see how the princess and the Lin Kuei perceived their lax Thunder God – only to witness Kitana taking a similar stance to Raiden against the wall, and Sub-Zero turning his back on them. As if sensing him, he looked over his shoulder, locking eyes with Scorpion, before making his way to a further section of the room.

Scorpion eyed the exit once more, at the deceptively harmless and fragile door. He tore his gaze from it and went to pull his kunai out from the ice.

* * *

  
The chamber was circular, thirty paces in diameter with five meters of clearance overhead. Twelve meticulously placed torches lined the walls, providing the barest amount of light, and in the center of the floor was etched the black insignia of the Mortal Kombat dragon.

There were two doors. The door on the north side, the one which Scorpion had attempted to breach, gave no view of the passage outside the chamber. The door on the south, the one through which the four of them had originally entered, provided only a barred slit to reveal the shadowy passage they’d pursued Quan Chi.

No amount of jiggling the corroded handle allowed the south door to open. The same green aura enveloped its surface, melting away as Scorpion stepped back. With a growl, he crossed to the other side of the room, aware of the others lazily watching him.

Yielding the same results, Scorpion whipped around on Raiden. 

“It has been over two hours, _Thunder God_ ,” he said. “Yet the doors remained sealed.”

Raiden rubbed the bridge of his nose, his usual smug demeanor exchanged for annoyance. “Perhaps I underestimated the extent of Quan Chi’s spell.”

Another _boom_ overlapped the area, loosening dust from above.

Scorpion caught the motion of Sub-Zero’s eyes flicking towards the ceiling and roaming the room. He hadn’t missed how the Lin Kuei assessed his surroundings all this time. No matter what Raiden said, waiting by idle was not something Sub-Zero did. Analyzing. Calculating.

“Perhaps Quan Chi’s spell does require provocation,” Sub-Zero said, fluidly standing from the floor where he’d been sitting cross-legged. He strode towards the north exit. 

“Provocation?” Kitana inquired.

Sub-Zero outstretched his hand, hovering his fingers over the door’s knob. Even the lightest touch triggered the green force field to appear. 

“Enlighten us on such an action,” Scorpion said, his boot crunching over a rodent skull.

“I am still contemplating that,” Sub-Zero said, indifferent to the ghostly aura of the door pushing against his palm. Ice formed over his hand, but it fizzled against the shield. Whether this caused Sub-Zero any pain, he didn’t indicate. 

Scorpion’s eyes narrowed. Another rumble came from above, and his fingers itched for his kunai. The battle was still ensuing outside these chamber walls, yet they were mere sitting ducks. Anymore “contemplation” would drive him off the edge.

“Scorpion,” Raiden warned as Scorpion paced the room’s perimeter.

The spectre stepped forward and shoved a humanoid skeleton off a nearby alcove embedded within the chamber. To Hell with Raiden’s orders – if the doors wouldn’t open, then a secret passage or compartment had to be present within a temple as old in age as this one.

He ran his hand over the callous surface of the alcove. A rat scurried out from a hole on its ledge and ran over his wrist, but Scorpion paid no mind as he picked the torch off its holder tucked in the alcove to examine the crevices of the wall. 

An unforeseen breeze blew out the torch in Scorpion’s hand.

The effect continued – from the next torch, to the next, gradually circling the room. 

Raiden, Kitana, and Sub-Zero started, their eyes tracking the dying torches, racing ahead until they settled on Scorpion gripping the original torch.

Meanwhile, Scorpion was engrossed on the alcove before him. Even in the darkening chamber, the shadows did not deceive his eyes as the bricks of the alcove jutted forward, until it was one with the curved wall. The other alcoves followed in-sync. 

“What have you done?” Kitana demanded as the final torch cast them into darkness. 

They’d barely stirred when a buzz of static came from the left, making the hairs on Scorpion’s arms rise. His eyes stung from the vivid tendrils of electricity dancing over Raiden’s form, but it demonstrated to be better lighting than the torches. 

A rumble—much denser, much closer—sounded throughout the chamber. Another shower of dust smothered them, and the walls around them began to close in.

Raiden rolled his head to stare at Scorpion over his shoulder. “Oh, you idiot.”

Sub-Zero leapt away from the north door, freezing the junction between the floor and wall. It seemed to stall the advancement of the walls, but then they plowed through the ice; Sub-Zero coated another layer over the cold. “Raiden!” he said. “How do we reverse this?”

“There is no reversing!” Raiden stuck his arms out from his sides, electricity racing from his fingertips and shooting towards the walls. The stones crackled with blue light, casting the ever-constricting chamber in a holy glow. “What did I say about not _touching_ anything?” he said to Scorpion. 

“Be quiet!” Scorpion grunted as he punched his aflame fist into the wall, pulverizing and melting the limestone. Blackness greeted him, promptly followed by a zap of green light that threw him a good distance across the room. 

Kitana had a similar trial, tossing her bladed fans into the cracks of the wall for any chance of digging their escape, but Quan Chi’s magic proved its craftiness. The fans ricocheted off the green walls, one lodging into the ceiling, the other nearly dismembering Scorpion as it sailed past. 

Sub-Zero skated round the chamber, leaving a trail of frost in his wake and a thick barrier of ice that swept up against the merciless walls. 

All the while, Raiden chanted an incantation so fast that had any of the kombatants recognized the ancient tongue, none would’ve understood. Electricity incessantly climbed over the god’s figure, pulsing with life. 

Scorpion flipped to his feet, stepping backwards until he was back-to-back with Kitana, who had re-summoned her fans. Sub-Zero slid to a stop next to them; if he circled the chamber any more, he would collide with them or risk freezing Raiden. It was no use regardless - the Lin Kuei’s ice crumbled into shards and shifted forward with the vibrating walls. 

“Raiden—” Kitana called, as the god levitated above them, still uttering incantations. 

The walls choked the border of the dragon insignia donning the floor, which the warriors stood crowded on. They dodged whatever they could of the rock and debris that rained from the ceiling, the air between them growing stale. The remaining ice cascaded from the base of the walls now, numbing their ankles. Raiden exclaimed one last chant. Thunder bolts erupted from him and dug into the walls, akin to spokes of a wheel with Raiden as the hub. 

All at once, the walls quivered to a stop. Panting, the warriors looked about them. The electricity diminished from Raiden’s body into a soft glow as he floated back towards the floor. 

“You’ve stopped it,” Kitana said, backing away from Scorpion - or as far away as she could get. She put her gloved hand up against the wall, as if anticipating it to move again. 

Raiden frowned. “I would love to take full credit...but I don’t think this was me.”

The Edenian stared at him, puzzled “Then what—?”

Kitana sprung from the floor, balancing on her fans which she’d slotted into the wall. The dragon’s head, previously smooth as obsidian, had suddenly given underneath her feet - or so she thought. A rectangular segment of the floor had sunken a perfect ninety degrees into the ground. The motion continued counter-clockwise around the dragon, the steps sinking lower and lower until they descended into a staircase spiralling into the unknown. 

Scorpion steadied himself on the steps, as did Sub-Zero and Raiden. With the gracefulness of a cat, Kitana landed beside Scorpion. “By the gods,” she said. 

All four of them peered into the depths of the staircase. A single torch flickered at the bottom. 

“ _Huh_ ,” came a voice from the shadows, one all-too familiar.

“Johnny Cage?” Sub-Zero said as the actor stepped out of the dark.

The torch Cage held illuminated his face. For once, Scorpion noted, Cage wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. He blinked in bafflement up at them all, at the dirt and spots of blood staining their clothes, to the ice shreds glistening on the topmost steps. 

“Where the hell have you guys been?” Johnny asked. “We’ve been kicking ass out here.”

“The tarkatans,” Kitana began, but Johnny was quick to put her at ease.

“Relax, your highness. We won - barely.” Cage winced as he inspected a laceration on his forearm. “Luckily Sonya had a few spare detonators to set off. The rest of the horde retreated. It would’ve been _nice_ to have backup, though,” he added pointedly. 

“Well,” Raiden said, pleased with this turn of events. “It seems you fared well enough without us, if you’re here to complain.”

“How did you locate us, Johnny?” Sub-Zero asked. “Where are the others?”

“Me? Oh, I got in a scuffle with one of Baraka’s buddies playing dead. He--or maybe it was a she, details are a little blurry--but she chased me into one of these passages. I took her down, but uh, I got lost, so I tried to find a way out. Then I got tired of using my green glow to see and grabbed one of these torches off the wall and...next thing I know, there’s a staircase and you guys.” Johnny shook his head, rubbing his neck. “Look, as much as I love recaps, Raiden, can we get outta here? This place gives me the creeps.”

“That we can agree on, Johnny,” Raiden said, maneuvering past Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Kitana to have first priority down the stairs.

“ _Hmph_ ,” Scorpion said, descending after Raiden, as did the others. The bottom of the stairwell revealed a narrow stone hallway littered with cobwebs. Faintly-lit torches adorned the walls further down - giving the illusion only from above that the passage lacked light. 

“Where is Quan Chi?” he asked Cage.

“We didn’t see him,” Cage said. “Weren’t you the ones chasing after him?”

“Quan Chi is bound to turn up, knowing his knack for trouble. For now we can rejoice at our escape from the chamber, Scorpion,” Raiden said in some attempt to appease the fuming spectre. The god clapped Johnny on the shoulder as he passed, taking the lead. 

“Hey, I just came from this direction,” Johnny said, swinging his torch wildly as he pivoted towards Raiden.

“I know,” Raiden flatly said. “I’m assuming you made a few wrong turns on your impromptu rescue. I’m quite good with direction, you know.” He offered Johnny a wink.

A hard shoulder knocked into Cage before he could respond. He glared at Scorpion’s back as the spectre stormed past Raiden and continued alone down the passage, the occasional cobweb curling into red-hot ashes under his footing. 

“Let him be,” Kitana said to Johnny. “It is best he has distance from us.”

“Tell me something new…” Johnny muttered. He waited for Sub-Zero, who had taken the rear of the group, and matched pace with the Lin Kuei Grandmaster. “Okay, so I figured the bit with this torch here triggered some secret passage leading me to you guys - very Dark Chambers 101.”

“Are you enticing us to thank you for your heroics?” Sub-Zero drily said.

Johnny grinned. “Oh, I will. First you tell me why you tried to make an ice rink upstairs.” 

The warriors travelled further and further from the stairwell, shrouding it in the dark once more. Only the cobwebs and any other creatures lingering in the temple’s walls would ever hear the grinding of the obsidian steps sinking back into the ceiling, where the dragon emblem above would reform and continue to wait until the next wanderer opened its jaws. 


End file.
